Basic Concepts in Physics

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Typical Speeds

When you use the speed formula you find the average speed. It's good to know the "typical speeds" of different modes of transport.

True or false: when you calculate $speed = \frac{distance}{time}$ for a journey, you always find the average ** speed for that journey

This athlete is running some of the way and cycling some of the way to cover $3,000 \space m$ . What is her average speed in $m/s$ ?

Typical speeds

When we talk about the typical speed of say, a person running or a car driving...

this will always be an average speed.

An average person walks $45m$ in $30s$ . What is an average person's typical walking speed in $m/s$ ?

So, the typical speed of human walking is...

$1.5\:m/s$

An average cyclist travels $360m$ in an hour. What is the typical speed of a cyclist, in $m/s$ ?

So the typical speed of a cyclist is...

$6\:m/s$ .

How fast do you think a train typically goes in $m/s$ ?

So the typical speed of a train is...

$55\:m/s$

A car journey from London to Manchester takes $3h$ on average. The distance is $270km$ . If $270km=270,000m$ and $3h=10,800s$ , what is the typical speed of a car in $m/s$ ?

Finally, what would you say is the typical speed of a person running in $m/s$ ?

So these are a few typical speeds

Walking, running, cycling, driving in a car and driving in a train.

Max gets a train that travels at $55m/s$ and the journey takes $2h$ . How long is the journey in kilometres?

Steph needs to buy some milk before the shop near her house closes at 6pm. The shop is $360m$ away.

What is the latest time she can leave her house in order to get to the shop a minute before it closes, if she runs at $3m/s$ ?

Not all people walk at the same speed

Which of the following can affect the speed at which a person walks?

You can select multiple answers

There are many factors which can affect the speed with which a person walks.

These include age, terrain, fitness and distance travelled.

Summary!

An object which is moving will rarely be moving at the same speed, constantly.

An object will usually be speeding up (accelerating) or slowing down. Therefore we use average speed to calculate the speed.

Different modes of transport have different typical speeds

This shows the typical speeds for walking, running, cycling, driving in a car and travelling in a train.

There are many factors which can affect the speed with which a person walks.

These include age, terrain, fitness and distance travelled.